Pascal Lee

Who is Pascal Lee?

Pascal Lee is co-founder and chairman of the Mars Institute, a planetary scientist at the SETI Institute, and the Principal Investigator of the Haughton-Mars Project at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. He holds an ME in geology and geophysics from the University of Paris, and a PhD in astronomy and space sciences from Cornell University.

Lee's research focuses on Mars, asteroids, and impact craters, in particular in connection with the history of water on planets and the possibility of extraterrestrial life. He is known internationally for his work on Moon and Mars analogs in the Arctic, Antarctica, and other extreme environments on Earth. He is the author and co-author of over 100 scientific publications, and first proposed the "Mars Always Cold, Sometimes Wet" model of Mars evolution based on field studies of the geology of Earth's polar regions.

In 1988, Lee wintered over for 402 days at Dumont d'Urville station, Adelie Land, Antarctica, where he served as the station's chief geophysicist.